


From A to Z

by misura



Category: The Demon's Lexicon - Sarah Rees Brennan
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 20:57:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>26 mini-drabbles of one line each</p>
            </blockquote>





	From A to Z

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rachel McFaith](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Rachel+McFaith).



> Timewise, these are all over the place, from pre-book to post-book to mid-book. Thanks to Rachel (different Rachel!) for the beta.

**A**  
Arthur Black dies the way he has lived, without friends or family - Gerald makes the arrangements for his final disappearance, a few forms to fill out and a modest sum to the right person suffice to make it seem as if no such man has ever lived.

**B**  
Being human, Alan considers in a rare moment of peace and quiet, is both more complicated and more simple than most people know.

**C**  
"Cars?" Nick says at his job-interview, "sure, I know plenty about cars," and it's true, too, even if he can see in their eyes that they don't quite believe him, which is fine, because it means that all he'll need to do to get the job is to be himself and prove he's telling the truth - they haven't even bothered to check the forged papers Alan's made for him yet.

**D**  
Daniel Ryves does not think of himself as a brave man, but he believes in doing what is right; he loved and lost Olivia once, already, and then loved and lost Marie - there is, he feels, a limit to the amount of loss any man will meekly accept as fate before he starts fighting back and for him, that limit has been reached.

**E**  
"Even if you're telling the truth ... " Merris Cromwell starts, and Alan knows he's half-won already and that just maybe, he'll be able to mend this bridge - "I am," he says, softly, willing her to believe in his humility and uncertainty.

**F**  
"For me?" Mae asks, all wide-eyed delight and Nick, unable to help himself, grins at her and offers the blossom to Alan instead - tomorrow, he knows this will be a mistake, only today, it's exactly the right thing to do.

**G**  
Gerald's parents wished for him to become either a lawyer or an accountant; he sees them once a year at Christmas, for a family dinner, where they express their disappointment in him and he offers them his silent apologies in return, the penitent son come home, and all the while he's thinking _'if only you knew'_.

**H**  
"Happy birthday!" Alan beams and presents the cake with a flourish - it looks, Nick thinks, like it will taste horrible, and the sixteen candles Alan's crammed on there can't possibly be helping, but he already knows he'll eat it and not say anything, to make Alan happy.

**I**  
In a Circle, all magicians are equal, but some are more equal than others; Gerald moves quietly and talks softly, and by the time people realize that's not all he does, he's surpassed them already.

**J**  
Jamie still dreams of a demon lover who comes to his window at night and plays his body like a musical instrument, with soft, sure hands that know when to be gentle and when to leave bruises - the mark on his body may be gone, but something yet remains with him.

**K**  
Killing comes too easily to Olivia, Daniel thinks; her eyes are too wild at times like these, reminding him of what she used to be and still is - her baby's eyes are quiet and empty though, not a hint of wildness in them at all and that, somehow, disturbs him even more.

**L**  
Laughter - the kind that rings out like a bell, unexpected and joyful - never comes easy to Nick, but he works at it, slowly, to please Alan and Mae and Jamie and other people he's somehow learned to care about.

**M**  
Mark's body looks unreal somehow, as if it's not really human - Laura has seen dead bodies before, only they never wore the faces of people she's known; she wants to scream, then cry, then curse, yet in the end, she does what Gerald tells her to do, choosing the easiest way out, as always.

**N**  
"New clothes," Mae says promptly - "New books'," Alan says in a wistful tone; personally, Nick thinks they should use the money to buy new weapons, but he keeps quiet and lets the two of them settle on an Aramaic-English dictionary for Mae and a new shirt for Alan.

**O**  
Olivia thinks she might choose to be not mad some day, one day, when things are right again.

**P**  
Pink isn't Mae's favourite colour, but Jamie says it suits her and Mom says it doesn't, so she figures it's the perfect colour to paint her hair.

**Q**  
"Quaint," Mae says, seeing their new house for the first time - "I bet it's haunted or something like that," Jamie says, prompting Alan to launch into a brief lecture on the topic of ghosts (in particular: the fact that they do not exist) which Mae interrupts to ask questions and Jamie to point out the inconsistency of demons being real but ghosts not - and Nick wonders when he became so used to the sound to their voices that he can't quite imagine being without them anymore.

**R**  
Revenge is a luxury, Gerald thinks; one should only indulge in it if one can afford to pay the price.

**S**  
Sunlight reflecting off snow and Nick remembers Liannan - cold and beautiful and asking him to share some warmth with her; too much warmth, he thinks, will melt her, yet like a moth to a flame, she cannot but long for what she can neither possess nor be.

**T**  
"Tease," Nick accuses, and Mae blinks, then blushes, then smoothes her skirt back down; she's not quite gotten the hang of wearing these types of clothes yet.

**U**  
Upstairs, Alan hears Olivia moving about; downstairs, Nick gets that look on his face that says he doesn't consider the woman who brought his body into the world anything more than a bother, a burden he's putting up with for Alan's sake.

**V**  
Vows are exchanged and as she walks out of the church, on the arm of her smiling groom, Olivia pictures the rest of her life and finds it quite empty of meaning.

**W**  
Water and no air (he will remember this vaguely and unclearly, later; recall the sensations but not the words for them) - water and no air and darkness, and then fire (_'you didn't mean any harm'_, Dad tells him later, much later, when he's found the words to talk about what happened, only Nick knows that's a lie, or at the very least, a mistake).

**X**  
"Xenomaniacs, both of you," Jamie says, "I mean, who cares what happened three thousand years ago on the other side of the world?" and Nick, who's been quiet until then, can't resist the temptation to look up and casually say: "I was there, you know," and Jamie says: "Oh," and shuts up.

**Y**  
"Yes," Gerald says, simply, that first time, when he's being offered anything he wants in exchange for the lives of people he neither knows nor cares about - it's a no-brainer, he thinks, an easy choice to make and, once made, he never feels the need to look back.

**Z**  
Zoos make Nick uncomfortable; he sees the trapped animals and feels something restless stir in him.


End file.
